Siebel Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SEBL), a leading provider of business applications software, today announced its market entry strategy for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. This supports the company's stated initiative to expand into new markets to fuel future growth and increase shareholder value. Siebel Systems has recently opened its own office in Moscow, Russia to prepare for a full scale launch in 2005. Working through local partners since 2002, Siebel already has approximately 30 customers in Russia and CIS, including Kazkommertsbank and InvestSberbank. According to Gartner, Inc., Russia's fledgling CRM Software market more than doubled from 2002 to 2003, to $14.8 million(1).

The economic conditions in these countries are now maturing enough to stimulate demand for customer facing systems. Companies are beginning to feel the effects of a competitive market and for the first time are having to compete for customers. Organizations in key sectors such as financial services, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods are leading the way in embracing customer systems and using them as a strategic business weapon.

"We have carefully assessed the timing of our investment in this emerging market. Only two years ago, it was almost impossible for Russian consumers to get a credit card. There was no concept of organisations competing for customers -- the supply of products and services was still scarce. But this is changing fast," said Neil Weston, President of EMEA Sales, Siebel Systems, Inc. "With more than 10 years of expertise in creating and leading the CRM market and helping more than 4000 companies to better serve their customers, we are thrilled by the strong interest we are receiving in Russia. We are keen to share our experience of combining the right strategy, business process and change management programmes with the best technology to ensure that organizations in Russia and CIS can achieve demonstrable business value."

Siebel's expanded operation in Russia will be led by Pavel Cherkashin, a key figure in Russian business and a leading CRM speaker and author who will spearhead the company's Russian market activities.

Key activities in Siebel Systems' market strategy for Russia and CIS include:

-- Comprehensive marketing strategy commencing with premier sponsorship, participation and keynote presentation at the first Russian CRM Congress on 2-3 December 2004, hosted by the CRM Association;

-- Launch of Siebel Systems' Alliance Program including partner recruitment and support, training and certification, and marketing support. This includes the Siebel University training program -- the company aims to have 50 fully trained and certified CRM consultants in partner organizations during 2005;

-- Extending existing customer engagements and working on new opportunities to meet customer requirements and market demand;

-- Providing fully localised and translated versions of Siebel's CRM solutions in Russian, including Siebel 7.7, Siebel Professional Edition and Siebel CRM OnDemand with planned availability by the end of 2005. This extends Siebel's existing product support for the Cyrillic character set;

-- Combining the experience of Siebel Systems' ecosystem of approximately 2900 certified Siebel consultants across Europe with the capabilities of local certified partners.

"I believe that embracing CRM is the right approach to making Russian businesses stronger and more efficient. Leading companies in the market are starting to introduce customer-driven strategies and now is the right time to share our decade of global experience with them," added Pavel Cherkashin, Country Manager, Siebel Systems Russia. "Siebel is committed to this market, combining its global and local resources to help customers achieve tangible business results. I am excited to be joining the global CRM market leader right on the cusp of a dramatic expansion in the market for customer facing systems in Russia and CIS."

Maxim Chernuschenko, Head of Consumer Finance business at InvestSberbank, one of the leading Russian banks in the area of credit cards and personal loans, said, "We are pleased that Siebel Systems is now investing seriously in our market. We are keen to learn from Siebel's global experience in understanding our competitive needs while working with the company's and its partners' professionals to ensure our local strategy, support and implementation needs are fulfilled."

Pavel Cherkashin

Before joining Siebel Systems, Pavel spent three years as CEO of Sputnik Labs, a leading Russian CRM consultancy. Pavel is also the author of a bestselling Russian book entitled, "Are you prepared to fight for your customer?," which covers key aspects of customer relationship management. Pavel's responsibilities at Siebel Systems include establishing direct and indirect sales across Russia and CIS and managing all customer relationships.

Existing Siebel Systems partners in Russia include Accenture, HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems, RBC SOFT, Sputnik Labs, and TechnoServ A/S.

Existing Siebel Systems customers in Russia and CIS include Kazkommertsbank, InvestSberbank, Renaissance Capital Bank, Russian Standard Insurance, Troika Dialog, Kiev Star, Don-Stroy and other leading companies.

About Siebel Systems

Siebel Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of business applications software, enabling corporations to sell to, market to, and serve customers across multiple channels and lines of business. With more than 4,000 customer deployments worldwide, Siebel Systems provides organizations with a proven set of industry-specific best practices, CRM applications, market-leading analytics products, and business processes, empowering them to consistently deliver superior customer experiences and establish more profitable customer relationships. Siebel Systems' sales and service facilities are located in more than 30 countries.

For more information on Siebel Systems solutions and services, please visit our Web site: CRM -- http://www.siebel.com/crm; OnDemand Solutions -- http://www.crmondemand.com; Industry CRM -- http://www.siebel.com/industry-crm; Call Center and Service -- http://www.siebel.com/call-center; Sales Force Automation -- http://www.siebel.com/sales-force-automation; Marketing Automation -- http://www.siebel.com/marketing-automation; Business Intelligence -- http://www.siebel.com/business-intelligence; Integration Solutions -- http://www.siebel.com/integration-solutions; CRM Services -- http://www.siebel.com/crm-services.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risk or uncertainties. Future operating results of Siebel Systems may differ from the results discussed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to factors that include, but are not limited to, risks associated with customer relations, such as the availability of Siebel Systems' products and services, customer implementation of products and services, relationships with customers, third-party vendors and systems integrators, concentration of revenues in a relatively small number of customers, existence of errors or defects in products, ability to successfully manage growth, significant current and expected additional competition and the need to continue to expand product distribution and services offerings. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Siebel Systems are included in Siebel Systems' Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov. Siebel Systems assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release.

Siebel is a trademark of Siebel Systems, Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.